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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26990767">Lessons With a Cute Chef</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/aj_linguistik/pseuds/aj_linguistik'>aj_linguistik</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>October Prompt Challenge [13]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Sword Art Online (Anime &amp; Manga), ソードアート・オンライン - 川原礫 | Sword Art Online - Kawahara Reki</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Baking, Cooking, Cooking Lessons, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/M, Kissing, October Prompt Challenge, One Shot</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 23:28:37</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,430</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26990767</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/aj_linguistik/pseuds/aj_linguistik</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Asuna's in the mood to do some baking, but Eugeo wants to be helpful, so he proposes that she teach him how to make his favorite baked treat: honey pies!</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Eugeo/Yuuki Asuna | Asuna</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>October Prompt Challenge [13]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1949194</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Lessons With a Cute Chef</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/disasterbiKirito/gifts">disasterbiKirito</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>A/N: Day 13! Wow! Almost halfway through the month! Today's prompt brings me back to my home fandom with a rarepair who deserves some love. Today was "Cooking" so babe requested Asugeo baking a dessert. These two have such fluffy vibes ;-; I love them!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>            His eyes were drawn away from the pages of his novel when two arms reached down over the back of the chair and wrapped around his neck. He turned his head to the left, saw nothing, and then turned his head to the right. There, he was greeted with a kiss on the cheek and Asuna’s smiling eyes. He set the book down, carefully slipping his bookmark between the pages, and angled his body so that he could reach up and return her kiss. She nodded her head over towards the kitchen with a playful expression on her face.</p><p>            “I was thinking about baking something,” she said. “Any special requests?”</p><p>            He hummed for a moment in thought. His answer was always the same when it came to baked goods, but if he looked like he were thinking about it, perhaps he wouldn’t look so eager for the same thing. Asuna laughed and shook her head. She likely already knew the answer to her question before he stated it.</p><p>            “Let me guess,” she said. “Honey pies?”</p><p>            Laughing, he nodded.</p><p>            “How ever did you know?” he said.</p><p>            She ran her hands down his chest.</p><p>            “Oh, you only ask for them every time I bake something,” she said.</p><p>            He wrapped his hands around her arms and rubbed them gently.</p><p>            “Then how about I do something a little more unpredictable,” he said. “Let me bake with you. You’re always telling me you don’t need help, but where’s the fun in that? I’m sure it’d be wonderful to get to bake with you.”</p><p>            Asuna glanced over at the kitchen.</p><p>            “Are you sure?” she said. “The last time you tried to bake something, there was an incident with a fair amount of smoke and a burnt loaf of bread.”</p><p>            Eugeo pouted a little.</p><p>            “It was supposed to be a cake…” he said.</p><p>            She laughed and pulled back her left arm so she could ruffle his hair.</p><p>            “If you insist,” she said. “But make sure you follow my instructions.”</p><p>            His eyes lit up.</p><p>            “Of course, Master Baker Asuna!” he said.</p><p>            She blushed and giggled at the compliment. He set his book down and followed her into the kitchen to start their work on the pies. Asuna pulled out a couple of aprons and handed him one. He slipped his over his head and immediately went over to her to offer to ties hers for her. She let him do so, which gave him the perfect opportunity to rest his hands on her hips and hold her there for a moment. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her from behind. She tilted her head up to meet his and they kissed where they met.</p><p>            “Alright, enough distraction,” she said, running her fingers over his cheek. “We’ve got pies to bake!”</p><p>            He nodded in agreement. She slipped out of his arms and reached over to preheat the oven. She knew it without even checking the book. He wondered if he asked for honey pies way too often. She appeared to be beginning without a recipe. She took out the ingredients she needed and turned to him to ask him to take out certain bowls and mixing materials. By the time he’d gotten out the materials, she’d located the cookbook and set it down between them.</p><p>            “Okay, we need to make the crusts first,” she said. “Because we’re making two pies, we should double the recipe.”</p><p>            He frowned and pointed to the bowls.</p><p>            “Why not just have you make one and I make one?” he said. “That way I can practice.”</p><p>            She tilted her head for a moment and then nodded.</p><p>            “That’s true,” she said. “Alright then, I’ll race you to see who gets their crust done first! I’ll even give you a head start while I grease the pie plates!”</p><p>            She didn’t have any faith in him at all, it seemed. He chuckled and turned to the book to see what ingredients he needed. He started by scooping out the dry ingredients first. He’d seen her do that before; she never added any liquids until the dry ingredients were all mixed together. He carefully measured out the ingredients and then dumped them all into his bowl. Frowning, he wondered whether or not he needed to stir them together before he added the wet ingredients. He stole a look over at Asuna’s side and saw that she was already mixing her dry ingredients with a whisk.</p><p>            Not one to be outdone, he selected a whisk and started mixing his own bowl. He stopped after a moment and nodded, satisfied that he’d mixed it decently enough, and then he started to add in the liquid ingredients. He wasn’t so sure if he needed to add the butter by melting it first, but Asuna didn’t appear to be doing that. He dropped everything into the dry mix and then started to beat at it again with a spoon this time—he was mimicking her again, he had to admit. The butter was hard to mix in. He jabbed at it several times, making a bit of a racket as he did so.</p><p>            Eugeo heard a chuckle from Asuna’s side of the counter. She wasn’t looking at him when he turned to observe her. She was just stirring up a nicely formed dough. She sat her spoon down, started to flour the baking mat in front of her, and she picked up the dough with her hands and dropped it into the flour. With the ease and grace of a practiced baker, she kneaded the dough back and forth. He had to catch up.</p><p>            Determined, he tossed his spoon aside and started mixing with his bare hands. The butter still wasn’t integrated into the dough, so it felt cold against his hands. He didn’t care. He kept at kneading it in the bowl until it was decent enough to move onto the mat. The only problem now was that the dough was incredibly sticky—and thus, it was stuck all over his hands. When he reached to grab a handful of flour, he had to do his best not to get any dough into the container. He dumped it onto his mat, resulting in a small cloud of the stuff getting all over his front. He then transferred his very sticky dough to the mat and tried to knead it while trying to get himself unstuck.</p><p>            By the time he got all of the dough off of his fingers to start kneading it, he glanced to his side and did a double take as he saw Asuna putting the finishing touches on the edge of the crust. She had it nicely laid out on her mat, one half already sitting in the pie plate ready to accept filling. He gaped at it in awe for a moment and then started to try and knead again. Asuna came over to his side and placed her hands around his wrists to guide his motions.</p><p>            “If you do it like this, it’s easier,” she said.</p><p>            He should have felt a little guilty for getting help when they’d been racing, but just getting to touch her skin was reason enough to not complain about it. Asuna laughed and slowly let go of his hands to let him finish up the rest.</p><p>            “I saw you start mixing with your bare hands,” she teased. “And you forgot to cut in the butter.”</p><p>            He frowned.</p><p>            “Cut in?” he repeated. “What’s that?”</p><p>            She held up a pastry cutter. He remembered the name because he’d been at the store with her when she’d selected it and asked if it was in their budget to take it home. He’d told her it definitely was, so she’d been so delighted to take it home that day.</p><p>            “When you add in cold butter, we use something like this or like a butter knife to cut it into smaller pieces so that it’s easier to mix,” she said.</p><p>            He sighed and made a mental note to try that next time. He finished rolling out his dough and then separated it messily to put the bottom crust in place in his pie plate. It didn’t look nearly as neat and elegant as Asuna’s did, but he at least felt accomplished in that he’d done most of the work himself. They slipped the two crusts into the oven to bake. Asuna gave him a thumb’s up and then started to clear the area to make room for them to start on the filling.</p><p>            “This should be the easier part,” she said, giggling. “So, we have to make a custard on the stovetop.”</p><p>            She set down a big pot.</p><p>            “We’ll keep these together since it’ll be difficult to both manage a pot at the same time on the stove,” she said. “We’ll need the liquid ingredients first, here. Heavy cream, honey, vanilla extract, and eggs.”</p><p>            Eugeo nodded and set about measuring out doubled portions of the ingredients. He poured them into the pot while Asuna started to stir the contents with a wooden spoon. After he finished with the cream, honey, and vanilla, he carefully cracked the eggs in bowls to the side before he added them to her mixture, just in case he got some eggshell in them as they cracked. He added those, and then he reached for the dry ingredients.</p><p>            “Make sure to add these slowly,” she said. “Don’t dump all of the brown sugar at once.”</p><p>            He bit his lip and made a show out of going so slow that barely any of the sugar fell out. She playfully whacked him with the spoon, and he adjusted his speed as he poured the sugar in. He switched to the granulated sugar to add it next, and then followed up with the cornstarch. He frowned down at the cookbook and poked the next ingredient with his finger.</p><p>            “Salt?” he said. “Really?<br/>            Asuna laughed.</p><p>            “Cooking is like chemistry,” she said. “You need certain ingredients to get certain textures and for certain chemical reactions. It’s not enough salt that you ever taste it.”</p><p>            This new information was quite intriguing. He smiled and quickly added the last ingredient while she stirred. A sweet scent started to waft up from the pot, tickling his nose and making his mouth start to water. After a few minutes, Asuna pulled out the spoon with a bit of the mixture on the end. She brought it to her mouth, blew on it gently, and then turned to Eugeo, smiling sweetly at him.</p><p>            “Aaahh,” she said.</p><p>            He leaned forward and opened his mouth for her, unable to refuse. She slipped the spoon into his mouth. The sugary sweet flavor of the honey custard filled his mouth. He hummed with pleasure and felt a bit disappointed when she pulled the spoon back. He wanted to taste more of it. He shook his head. He was starting to sound like Kirito.</p><p>            “Good?” Asuna asked.</p><p>            He sheepishly nodded his head.</p><p>            “I almost want to eat it just like that,” he said. “I’ve never tasted it alone before.”</p><p>            Asuna laughed.</p><p>            “Perhaps next time we’ll just make the custard,” she said. “Now that I know how much you enjoyed that.”</p><p>            He felt his cheeks start to burn with embarrassment. He hadn’t meant to be that obvious about how much he’d enjoyed it, though he kept it to himself that the part about it being offered by her in such a cute manner had a lot to do with his enjoyment of it. She went back to stirring the custard. Eugeo stepped behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist while she worked. He rested his chin on her shoulder. She leaned her head against his and hummed while she stirred.</p><p>            “It’s almost done, you know,” she said, giggling.</p><p>            He sighed.</p><p>            “But I could stay like this all day,” he said.</p><p>            She kissed him on the cheek.</p><p>            “I know,” she said. “But you’ve got pie crusts to take out of the oven.”</p><p>            She pointed at the stovetop timer as it hit zero. He quickly shut it off and then grabbed the oven mitts to take out their crusts. He was pleased to see that his crust didn’t look too bad when he pulled it out of the oven. Setting the two down on the stovetop, he turned to watch Asuna as she turned off the stove and removed the custard. She put the lid on it and then set the timer again.</p><p>            “We’ll need to pour the custard in when the crusts are cooler,” she said. “We have a short bit while we wait. It shouldn’t be more than ten minutes, though.”</p><p>            Eugeo smiled.</p><p>            “That’s not too hard,” he admitted. “Aside from not knowing about the butter, I think I did okay, didn’t I?”</p><p>            She nodded her head.</p><p>            “You did a wonderful job for your first try!” she said.</p><p>            He laughed and pulled her back into his arms.</p><p>            “Just don’t tell Kirito,” he said. “Can’t have my best friend whining about how he can’t bake anything, and I can.”</p><p>            Asuna shook her head and slipped her arms up around his neck.</p><p>            “You two really are a mess together,” she teased. “But of course. I won’t tell him a word. Though it’s quite hard not to brag on my boyfriend when he’s so incredibly talented.”</p><p>            Eugeo bumped his forehead against hers.</p><p>            “Are you trying to boost my ego or something?” he asked.</p><p>            She just giggled. The timer sounded for the end of the cooling period. The two reluctantly parted from one another and stepped over to pour the custard into the crusts. It looked smooth and creamy. Eugeo could already imagine taking a big bite of the pie later. Once Asuna had one filled, he took the top crust and went to put it over the custard she stopped him and said that he needed to be careful not to put those on without poking holes for the filling. He nodded and did as he was told, taking a fork and making some air vents along the top as he placed them on. After he finished, they slipped both of the pies into the oven and set the timer again.</p><p>            “And that,” Asuna said, “is how you bake honey pies.”</p><p>            Eugeo placed his arm around her and rested his head against hers once more.</p><p>            “Thank you for teaching me,” he said. “Though I think I’ll be requesting more lessons with the cute chef…I’m not quite ready to bake on my own.”</p><p>            She laughed and stepped up to give him a quick kiss.</p><p>            “No argument there,” she said.</p>
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